Okay, welcome to our continuing
Bible study in the Gospel of Luke. Today we're beginning chapter
4. We'll be looking at verses 1-13
today. The title of today's message
is, What We Could Not Do for Ourselves. And the beginning
of this chapter of the gospel reported by Luke begins with
Jesus, verse 1, Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost. Remember back
in chapter 3 when he was baptized, the Holy Ghost descended in a
bodily shape like a dove upon him. And the voice came from
heaven, which said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am
well pleased. That's chapter three, verse 22.
So in beginning of chapter four, Jesus being full of the Holy
ghost returned from Jordan. where he had been baptized and
was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted
to the devil. And in those days he did eat
nothing. And when they were ended, he afterwards hungered. And the
devil said unto him, if thou be the son of God, command this
stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him saying,
it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. And the devil taking up to a
high mountain showed him unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
All this power I will give thee, and the glory of them, for that
is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. If
thou therefore wilt worship me, and all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God. And him only shalt thou serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of
the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down from hence. For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge over thee to keep thee. And in their hands
they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy
foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto
him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when
the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. So we have this commonly called
the temptations of Christ and how these verses deal with that.
If there were no breaks in the scripture as supplied by the
translators, we might more easily kind of see the connection with
the previously supplied chapter, which boundary was the lineage
or genealogy of Christ. And in particular, it left off
with son of Adam in Luke 3, 38, which says, which was the son
of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam,
which was the son of God. And so we find both those things
in this chapter here. The direct linkage back to the
fall in Adam. And remember back in verse 22, it
said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased. And
this spirit, this seal of authenticity is descending upon him. And we
find that spirit still with him. And this scripture, it kind of
brings our attention back to the events of Genesis in chapter
3, because we look back there, which was the son of Adam, takes
us right back to Genesis. And in chapter 3, we're introduced
to the first temptations. And the temptations which our
first parents were not able to resist, even though they, especially
Adam, were in the best position to exercise restraint in succumbing
to sin. They were the ones that had if
anybody ever had free will, it was them that had the ability
to choose or not to choose. And they only had really the
one commandment to obey, but it was kind of encompassing everything. We find that the temptations
presented here in Luke chapter 4 to Christ were really in substance
the same as that we found in the garden to man. And because
Christ as man, the Son of Man, the Son of God, He had to deal
with that. And we find later that this very
thing is kind of described in 1 John 2 15-16. Love not the world, neither love
the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. And then he lists a couple
of things here in verse 16. For all that is in the world,
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life
is not of the Father, but is of the world. Remember in Jesus,
in John, he said, I'm not of the world. And these are not
of the world. They're in the world, but they're
not of the world. And so the things of the world,
the things that have resulted as a result of the fall, that
appeal to the nature of man is what we're dealing with here.
Pride, power, and flesh, really those three things kind of encompass
all, everything. And how they relate to God is
they're all self, aimed things instead of the focus being on
God. It's a focus on man, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And
these are really, here in Genesis, they're kind of advertised as
coming from the Father, but they really, they do not, because
it says they're not of the Father. They're of the world. In John
there, 1 John 2.16. Now, let's go back to Genesis
chapter three real quick, and just read a couple of verses,
or one verse there, and then a couple in Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter 3. He said, now
the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he saith unto the woman, yea, hath
God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. So
he kind of jizzed a little word game on her there and tries to
cast doubt on the word of God and kind of muddle her understanding
of what he actually did say. Because in Genesis chapter 2,
verse 16, it says, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die. And then, of course, the serpent
said, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden. So he kind of left off the back
part of that. And some things to note that
we As we looked back in Genesis chapter 3, and we want to keep
some perspective and context here in Luke chapter 4, Jesus,
the Son of Man, the Son of God, was in the wilderness. That's gonna be a key thing to
understand here in a minute. Full of the spirit, the spirit
of authenticity, and he was in the wilderness and he was tempted
by the devil. And it said here that in verse
two, that he was fasting at this time, 40 days during the tempting. Being 40 days tempted of the
devil, in those days he did eat nothing. And when they were ended,
he afterward hungered. And it notes that he suffered
that issue there. He hungered. Can't imagine going
40 days without eating. But anyway, for us, it's more powerful
Seems like when you're trying not to eat, the temptation to
eat is more powerful. It's like everything looks good
to you. You know, everything is tempting. And as we note here, lately here
during all this coronavirus thing, the grocery stores have just
been raided. Not that there's a shortage of food, but people
think that possibly there could be a shortage later, and they're
panicking out and saying, I don't want that problem. I don't want
to... Be hungry. That's how powerful it is. You
don't see them going out and running out and buying an extra
sweatshirt or a pair of pants or shoes. But boy, they're worried
about their stomachs. And so they're going out and
emptying the shelves of the grocery stores. because they think that the supplies
perhaps could be limited. And although we've been really
assured that that's not going to happen, but still they're
worried about it. And it just makes that temptation
more, more powerful. Spiritual fasting as what kind
of what Jesus was doing here being 40 days tempted of the
devil. And in those days he did eat
nothing. Spiritual fasting is a result
of our heart that God has given us in a state of total and sincere
desire to be one with God regarding a spiritual matter. That's kind
of what fasting is about. Sometimes we have something that's
really on our hearts, on our minds, and our heart and our
mind is so tuned into that that We just don't want to eat. We're just so tuned into that
issue with God that we don't desire to eat. We're just focusing
on that. And that's true fasting. It's not
just, well, every Tuesday and Thursday I'm going to skip lunch. I fast three times in the week,
is what the Pharisees said. I just do it. I fast. Well, I
fast every day from about 9 o'clock at night till I get up. But that's
not really spiritual fasting. That's just not eating for a
little block of time. But, you know, they call it break
fast. Break fast is what you have when
you get up in the morning. You break your fast of not eating
all night. But it's not a spiritual fast. In Matthew 6.16, Jesus,
when he was going through these beatitudes, he said, be not as
the Pharisees when ye have fast. He said, when you fast, It's
not a thing that you do on a clock, on a time schedule. It's when
you have a matter that you want to get with God on. and be alone
with him about it, then that's when you would be fasting. And
he says, well, don't be like the Pharisees because they disfigure
their faces to make, they suck in their cheeks. They make it
look like they haven't eaten all week. And they appear to
fast, it says there in verse 16, but they're not really. They're
not really fasting. They're just doing a religious
ceremony. And they're not even really doing
that. And they come up with all kinds
of definitions. Well, I gave up. I didn't eat any bread today. That's my fast. something just
so they could dot that I and check that box. But this position
that we find Jesus in at this moment, he's about to enter into
his ministry, his public ministry really. He's been about his father's
business since he was, we read back in earlier in Luke, since
he was 12 years old. I must be about my father's business.
Well, here he's He's been baptized by John and the Spirit descending
on him. He's been announced. He's been
made manifest to the country. He's about to go out and do his
public ministry. We find him fasting here to be
at one with God regarding why he's even there. What is he doing
here? He came for the specific purpose to lay down his life,
a ransom for many. And so, the father said, this is my beloved
son, in thee I'm well pleased. So now we come to the temptations,
and we're introduced to this first temptation here. It's an
attack kind of on the basic need of hunger. And remember that
He is the Son of Man, so He felt hunger. He felt things that we
feel. And we don't find too many people going 40 days without
food, except in the Old Testament we find a couple of prophets
that that engaged in that by the direction of the Spirit,
and they were sustained by the Spirit. But in Luke chapter 4,
verse 3, the devil said unto him, if, he put that big if there,
if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And if we look back to Genesis,
we find the first temptation there was the peel was made to
the flesh in conjunction with casting doubt on the Word of
God. If thou be the Son of God, yea, didn't God say you could
eat of every tree? Both things kind of do the same
thing, just in different words, but they really do the same thing.
They cast doubt on God's veracity. And he says, didn't he say you
could eat of every tree? And then the woman says, well,
it is good to eat. Well, how would she know it was
good to eat? She put that in her mind. And it's pleasant to
the eye. It appeals to the eye, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and then the pride. And it's desire to make one wise. All those things that were promised,
if you eat this, you'll be as gods. So the basic appeals there, the
basic temptations are really the same as what we're finding
here in Luke. The answer to Jesus to the tempter
was the true word of God. And he takes that from Deuteronomy
8.3. And remember what we said about
Jesus, the son of man, the son of God was in the wilderness,
as it said in verse one of chapter four. In Deuteronomy chapter
eight, verse one through three, And if you think of, if you just
for a minute spiritually look at this and think of God giving
instructions unto his son, you shall take heed to do every commandment
which I am commanding you today. If you want to be my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased, you will take heed to do every
commandment which I am commanding you to do today, so that you
may live and may multiply and go in and possess the land which
Jehovah has sworn to your fathers. And, verse two, you shall remember
all the way which Jehovah your father has caused you to go these
40 years in the wilderness. in order to humble you and try
you to know that which is in your heart, whether you will
keep his commandments or not. And he was in the wilderness
40 days, but here it says 40 years is the time that they were
in the wilderness. And verse three, and he has humbled
you and caused you to hunger. and caused you to eat the manna,
the word of God, which you had not known and your fathers had
not known, in order to cause you to know that man shall not
live by bread alone, but man shall live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of Jehovah." And so, when he's tempted in
that way, he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. That was the right answer and
the only answer that would satisfy the righteousness of God the
Father. He, this was the answer of his beloved son in whom he's
well pleased, the son of Adam, the son of God. And now we come
to another temptation, power. This is kind of ironic, I think,
but in Luke chapter four, verse five through eight, and the devil
taking him up into a high mountain, kind of symbolic there, and showed
him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment. in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. For that is delivered unto me,
and to whomsoever I will give it. If thou therefore will worship
me, all shall be thine. And again, what is the right
answer? What is the thing that we look
to in verse 8? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Now
he had kind of couched the worship part behind, I'll give you all
this stuff. If you will worship me, I'll
give you all this power. If you'll worship me, all this
will be thine. And Jesus kind of skipped right
by all that part. And he says, well, the word of
God says that we worship only God. the Lord thy God, and Him only
shalt thou serve. So this appeal at sin, and we
find kind of the same thing in our own lives at sin, it seems
to lead us to a high place that appeals to our nature and gives
us a sense of power and control, but it's a false sense of well-being
and it's transient as life itself. Many people are finding out the
transient nature of life during this epidemic thing. A lot of
the stuff that they relied on, counted on, all these things
of power and the kingdoms and all these things, when it comes
right down to the final moment, don't really have a lot of value. So Jesus skips right to it. It says, thou shall worship the
Lord thy God and him only shall thou worship. In the garden,
power was presented so as to be able to make one as God. In
Genesis 3, 5, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, even
your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God. power, and
knowing good and evil, a lie promising power, you shall be
as God. For Jesus in the wilderness, who was with God, and who was
God, and to whom all power was given by the Father, so that
He might give eternal life to all that the Father had given
Him, power was offered to Him, ironically. That's kind of crazy there. By
one who could have no power unless it was granted to him from above.
John 19.11 is paraphrased with what Jesus was telling Pilate. The same thing is applicable
here. The devil had no power of his own. He's not like he
has his kingdom over here, and he's in charge of all that, and
he is equal to and opposite of God. He is God's slave to do
his bidding, and he is not equal by any stretch of the imagination,
and it's wrong for literature and caricatures to present him
in that equal way. like the devil on your one shoulder
and the angel on the other is like fighting back and forth.
That's all just wrong. So, the right answer here comes
from Deuteronomy chapter 6, again from the Word of God. The right
response. Deuteronomy 6.12, Then beware,
lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the
land of Egypt from the house of bondage, Thou shalt fear the
Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name you shall
not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are
around about you. I want to mention here that Pastor
Norm brought a great lesson Wednesday night on them that feared the
Lord from Malachi 3.16. This respect they had for the
Lord, this It's not fear like in being afraid, but a fear of
respect out of admiration and love based on what He has done. And remember the title of this
lesson is, He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
We failed in the garden. We failed at every step. We fail
ourselves every time we turn around. And yet Jesus is right
here taking care of all these things. And there's only a few
things listed, but they kind of encapsulate all of the things
that we're up against. The next temptation which we
run into is what might be termed nowadays as kind of the triple
dog dare. I've termed it, I dare you to
test God and see if what is written is true. And we'll find that
in verse nine, and he brought him to Jerusalem. and set him
on a pinnacle, or a high place atop of the temple, and said
unto him, if, again that word if, if thou be the son of God,
cast thyself down from hence. And here again, he makes a try
at trying to invalidate the Word of God. Didn't God say that you
could eat of every tree of the garden? And so forth. But he says, if thou be the Son
of God, cast thyself down from hence. Jump off here. For it
is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep
thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against the stone. And Jesus answering
said unto him, it is said thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. And so this temptation, this
triple dog dare temptation was kind of we find the same thing
in the garden. Eat this and see if you really die. Because He
knew they wouldn't die physically, but they did die spiritually. Everything changed. In the garden
it was, test God, see if you really die. And God had said
in chapter 2 verse 17, In the day that thou eatest of this,
thou shalt surely die." And he surely did die spiritually. He
found himself naked and ashamed and afraid of God. He was 180
degrees out from his prior relationship with God. he had fellowshiped with and
everything changed from that point because of that sin. This
particular temptation though had both in Genesis and that
the Lord faced here is recorded in Luke chapter 4 in verse 9
and 10 and 11. They had implications and ramifications
far beyond which seemed to be on the surface. You eat this, you'll die. Well,
so what? But he didn't know that, or perhaps
he did know, but he passed that on to all of his progeny. I mean,
this fallen nature, that's all he had to give when he reproduced
people. He gave them his nature, this
fallen nature because of his sin against God. And it had implications
and ramifications far beyond what he may have understood right
at the point in time. And for the Lord here in Luke
chapter four, The Word of God said in the Psalms,
for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in
all your ways. They shall bear you up in their hands that you
not dash your foot on a stone. That was not a physical, that
was a spiritual promise that the Lord made. In a physical sense, If thou
be the Son of God, cast thyself down from this." So, we would
be like an atom where we would say in our nature, oh yeah, I
dare you to eat that fruit. Well, I'll eat it. I'll not die. And if Jesus would
have done that, if he would have relied on, if he would have said,
okay, I can jump off this cliff because I know that the angels
will swoop down and catch me. Well, what would that have done
to his being my beloved son in whom I am well pleased? What
would that have done to his singular sacrifice on behalf of all his
people? He would have had help. He would
have not have been the perfect sacrifice. He would not have
been the success. He would have not have satisfied
the requirements of God. He would have failed. And so
the Lord, to whom belongs all power and might and wisdom, knew
that if he relied on external help to pass this test of this
temptation, he would not, by his own solitary sacrifice, have
satisfied the requirements of God. He would have failed. What
is the right answer then? Deuteronomy 6.16, Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. And then we find when the devil,
in verse 13, when the devil had ended all the temptations, he
departed from him for a season. And so, in a broad sense, in
Genesis and here in Luke, all these temptations, they were
different names, but they basically appeal to the same thing. the
pride, the power, the flesh, and all that is in the world,
from John 2.16, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world. That's why he was able to be
victorious over those things, and the Lord God, the
Father, was able to say, He's victorious. He was victorious
from all eternity. He was victorious from before
the foundation of the world. He's the Lamb slain. In all these
things, from time to time, we fail in one form or another.
We come up against these things all the time, you know, just
around the clock, and no man is able to sustain against these things
all the time. And after we're regenerated,
we become even more aware of that and we find In the Old Testament, especially
all of the old patriarchs, as they looked at themselves, they
just said, I'm dust and ashes. I'm a man of unclean lips in
the midst of a people of unclean lips, even though they were the
Lord's prophets and patriarchs. And woe is me, Isaiah said. And on and on it goes, and Paul,
the wretched man that I am, I mean, who's more beloved than Paul? He wrote practically the whole
New Testament, and yet his view of himself in view of these temptations,
he says, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? So, it's important for us to
realize that in these things, that are kind of broad strokes
of all the things that we're up against, Jesus did for us
which we could not do for ourselves, and thus satisfied the righteousness
of God. Jesus was victorious over all
of them for us. He didn't fail in one of these
things. Every single one He was victorious in. And back in the
garden we find in Genesis, I'll put enmity between thee and the
woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy
head and thou shalt bruise his heel. So He crushed the head
right here. He bruised the head. And where
man failed, Christ was victorious. And in Hebrews, the fourth chapter,
verse 15 says, For we have not a high priest that can't be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. We're up against all those things.
How could Jesus identify with us and be compassionate stand up for us if he knew nothing
about them. But it says, he was not a high priest which cannot
be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we were, or we are, yet without
sin. He's successful in every one
of them. He's victorious in every single
one of them. And so then, in verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of
the Spirit unto Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him
throughout all the region round about." And we look at these
things and say, thank God, thank, hallelujah, praise Him for doing
for us what we could not do for ourselves. And that'll be the
end of our lesson for today from Luke chapter four, verse one
through 14, really. And next time, Lord willing,
we'll take up there at verse 15. And in the meantime, as always
from John chapter eight, my friends, be free.